Since Corny Cole died on Monday, there have been quite a few comments on various blogs. To me, the most valuable of those I’d seen was the one posted late yesterday by Michael Barrier. It is an interview done with Milton Gray and Corny in 1991. They talk primarily about the days Corny worked under Chuck Jones at Warner Bros. and the days working at UPA on Gay Purr-ee, under the recommendation of Jones. Amid Amidi also posted a fine memorial to Corny on Cartoon Brew this morning.

I have a few scenes done by Corny Cole from Raggedy Ann and Andy, and I hope to post some of his art. However, animator, Matthew Clinton sent me the following scene and offered it for posting. Matt had a close relationship with Corny and I thought the scene somehow special. Somehow, to me, it captures the essence of Corny’s animation, so I thought it appropriate to post this week. Here’s the comment Matt sent along with the artwork:

Corny Cole gave this scene to me as a gift when I graduated. I’m guessing that it was something he worked on in his “Animation as Art” class while the students were busy drawing one day. Maybe it was for a demonstration. I included scans of all the drawings.

Corny talks, in the Barrier interview, of animating just by flipping without a bottom light. It’s easy to imagine him sitting in the front of the classroom flipping away with this artwork on his lap. It’s obviously stream of conscience. There are elements of some of Corny’s last big jobs in there: the taffy pit from Raggedy Ann and the clockwork mouse (a Disney/Mickey bastardization) from The Mouse & His Child, both features designed by Corny.

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The clockwork mouse about to be swallowed by the Taffy Pit.

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This is a QT of Corny’s piece. Since most drawings were exposed on 6′s,
I put one frame dissolves between each to soften the extremes.

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5 Responses to “Corny’s Cartoon”

on 12 Aug 2011 at 12:12 pm 1.Matthew Clinton said …

Thanks for posting the scene, Michael. This was the sort of assignment Corny would give us in the animation class. “Animation as Art” ran from 9AM to 4PM, every Thursday. He’d sometimes give the class a poem to animate, or a certain thing to animate such as liquid. Everyone would bring their animation discs or pegbars to class and it was so fun to sit there animating all day and listening to Corny’s stories. He had quite a sense of humor!

Corny had a knack for getting us to loosen up. The stream of consciousness approach was useful – keep drawing, keep flipping, keep thinking. It was amazing how much animation was done in that class.

It was awesome to see Corny draw on the whiteboard. He’d do that a lot, creating masterpieces before our very eyes. Then he’d wipe them away and create more in their place.

He was a very kind man. He always made you feel good. One day when I told him I had a twin, he told me he also had a twin, and from then on we had a special bond. Reading all the comments about Corny on Cartoon Brew, it’s obvious that he had a special bond with many, many people.

I graduated in 2002 and soon after I moved to New York. I didn’t see Corny again until I attended the Producers’ Show in 2007. I went up to to him. He had a large group of people around him so I was afraid to disturb his conversation. But he saw me, a large smile grew on his face, and he gave me a hug. We talked for a long time and it was like old times. The next day my friend Andy and I took him out for hamburgers. He had more funny stories to tell!

That was the last time I saw him. But I’ll always remember him.

on 12 Aug 2011 at 1:14 pm 2.Carolyn Bates said …

What wonderful, loose, expressive drawings! Corny cautioned us kids to follow art not commerce, yet so many of us (myself included), have not been able to follow his noble path in our careers. Funny to see his Disney sentiments so sharply depicted. He told a great story about a Disney assistant who quit 101 Dalmatians for a better job — digging ditches. ‘No more goddamn spots!’ Corny thought the guy was a lucky devil to get out of there with his sanity and dignity intact.

I’d forgotten how fluidly Corny could introduce an elusive idea or emotion into his animation. His caricatures rivaled Daumier’s. Thanks so much for posting this, I’d never seen this before. It’s such a treat to see Corny’s artwork and animation coming online. Loved Matthew Clinton’s letter as well.

on 15 Aug 2011 at 1:18 pm 3.Robert Schaad said …

Hi Michael. I remembered this (for some reason) and wondered if you had any idea if the artist behind it is in fact, Corny Cole. It says so in the youtube comments, but sometimes the comments there cannot be believed (understatement).